


Love Hurts

by TheARTboss



Series: The Trouble with Love is... [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: And Happy?, F/M, M/M, Mother of Dori and Nori and Ori, Sad, This is the story of Riika
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 08:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4600461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheARTboss/pseuds/TheARTboss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmates were a blessing and curse as far the dwarves were concerned. </p>
<p>This is the story of Riika, eventual mother of the brothers Ri.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Hurts

*

Soul mates were a blessing and curse as far the dwarves were concerned.

The poor and common found soul mates to be a cherished thing. Something akin to a fairy tale where everyone dreamed of that one day when they would find their One. The single dwarrows kept their hands and forearms bared in a hope of brushing against and discovering their One. The lucky dwarves who had already found their loves wore a thick leather band around their wrist, sometimes decorated with jewels, sometimes not, depending on their station, to show off the love that they had found.

And the other dwarves would look on with envy.

Deeper into the mountain the nobles were a bit more fickle. It was still a blessing to find one’s true love but at the same time it could be considered a fate worse than death. For Dwarves were warriors and there was always a chance that your One would not return from battle. The pain of such a loss was a whisper in the mountain, no one spoke of it in fear that it would happen to them and yet it happened.

If dwarves weren’t built to be sturdy then maybe they would have been given the chance to fade like the elves when faced with such pain, but only Mahal knew his reasons for why he created his children this way.

This is the story of Riika, daughter of Boli, cousin of Nar, in-law of Gror, brother of Thror, King under the mountain.

Riika was a beautiful dwarf. When she was still considered a babe at a mere decade when Thror had given her the title of ‘Jewel of the Mountain’. Her father Boli had a position in Thror’s court and could not have been prouder at such an honor. He kept his daughter in the best of silks and taught her how to braid intricate designs in her long light colored hair that was often compared to mithril.  Her mother was a gifted warrior in Thror’s army. It was said that no other was as skilled with a mace, she often was in charge of the training for the new guard. Not many dwarrows made it through but the ones that did were some of the finest Erebor had ever seen.

Riika grew to be a mighty dwarf, skill with a sword and curious penchant for books, she was truly the jewel of the mountain.

With her family’s connections and her own high standing in the court, she made a great match for Thror’s newest general, Dunli. They were not each other’s Ones, much to the disatisfaction of Boli, who had always been a bit of a romantic since meeting his One but they had a great friendship and were soon married.

They were happy for years, Riika gave birth to her first son Dori and everyone was happy. He had been a tiny thing, so small and quiet and Riika knew that he was going to be everything to her. She had never given away her heart so easily as she had when she first saw him open his eyes for the first time.

She was truly happy.

Until Thror marched off to battle to defend the Ironhills from an Orc invasion. She had known that her father needed to go, he was one of the King’s advisors, her mother was one of the strongest warriors so of course she was beside him. Riika had clutched onto her husband the night before they marched, as he whispered promises and endearments and she cried in his beard. The mountain had seemed like a shadow of what it was once was, everyone who was left behind keeping busy to make up for the emptiness they had all felt.

Two years.

The battle took two years, with Riika and the other dwarrows left behind only getting the barest of news until the it was over. Until the first group of soldiers walked through the gates, most limping but smiling.

They had won.

The feast was huge, the celebration lasting for weeks, and if Riika was absent from the celebration, no one said a thing. The King sat a table that should have been crowded with his closest friends was filled with holes. The mountain rejoiced and remembered and Riika separated herself from her friends and family.

The King had given her a handsome tribute in honor of her family that had been lost and Riika had felt her heart harden towards her distant kin. She had not cared for jewels or gold, she had not cared for the honor they would share in the Halls of the Waiting, she had only wanted her husband to watch his son grow strong.

She moved down a few levels down in the mountain that night, finding rooms that suited her needs. She hung her mother’s mace, her father’s swords and her husband’s axe  in a place of honor above the fireplace and wept. She held her son close, whispering to him as he held her back even tighter.

“Love hurts.” Riika whispered in her dwarfling’s hair, Dori said nothing as she held onto him like the lifeline he was. “It is the most precious thing in the world but it hurts.”

And that was how Riika started her new life, away from Thror’s court.

She spent much more of her time in the library, much to her son’s disappointment. But it was a quiet place, and very few dwarrows would bother her when she was finding solace and solace she did find in the aged pages of history.

“Did you know-” Riika whispered with a smirk at her son who gave her a bored glare. “-we’re related to Durin the Deathless?”

“Ma.” Dori groaned. “Can we please go to Dale? I promise to be good.”

“But you are always so good.” Riika teased as she pulled on his braid. He had been growing so fast over the years and Riika couldn’t help but feel little sadden with how much he looked like her.

Dunli would have been thrilled.

“I hate how they stare.” Dori whispered catching his mother’s attention as she turned and noticed a few dwarfs who thought they were being sneaky as they glanced in their direction. She frowned at them and it caused them to scatter before she turned to her son with a smile.

“Beauty is curse.” Riika stroked Dori’s growing stubble.

“Curses aren’t real.” Dori scoffed as he swatted at his mother before she pulled him to her and started tickling him. Oh how he hated when she caught him. “Letgoletgoletgo!”

“If you don’t believe me then believe the stories.” Riika let her son wiggle away from her. “Curses are real and beauty is the one we have to bare.”

Dori just pouted at her.

He would eventually learn what she meant, but at that time he would develop a reputation of his own as he sent his mother’s unwanted suitor through two walls of stone. The not-even-of-age dwarf breathing heavily as his mother pulled him to her. It had been meant to be a nice walk through the abandoned mines when the dwarf had come upon her but Dori had put it stop to it instantly.

The dwarf died from his injuries and Dori was drafted into the guard the day after he became an adult.

Riika cried as he showed her mace he had chosen as his first weapon. He had smiled at her and Riika couldn’t help but be thrilled as her son smiled at her. She would walk with him to his training, with a book in her hand as she joined the young dwarrows who would gawk in awe at the guard as they trained.

It only took Dori two years before he was a full fledged guard.

Riika laughed as he frowned on her, braiding his hair has she had her husbands. “You father wore it this way.”

“It’s too fancy.” Dori groused.

“I would break your nose for saying such things.” Riika pulled on his beard so that he was facing her. “And I expect you to break the nose of any dwarf who laughs at my hard work.”

“Yes, mother.” They both smirked as his serious tone.

She was truly happy.

“Dori, yer ma-um Miss Ri-um…” Dori glared at the young guard that was staring at him with wide eyes and a beet red face. “Miss Lady Riika is here.”

“Let her in, then.” Dori sighed before he heard a tussle outside causing him to stand up quickly. His captain had demanded that he had filled out several reports before his end of shift and all he needed as some criminal harassing his mother. The noises got louder as Dori finally made his way down the stairs only to come to the sight of his mother staring in surprise at a dwarf that was holding her.

Dori felt his blood boiling. “Let go of-”

“He saved me.” Riika smiled as the dwarf that was holding her helped her to her feet. She shouldn’t take her eyes off his smile. He seemed shy at the sight of her.

She was besotted.

And then she had to watch her son knock him out with an axe before cuffing the dwarf. Dori glared at her with more annoyance that a dwarf should be able to muster at his still rather young age. Riika found herself blushing at her son's disapproval.

And that’s how her affair with Nim started.

“He’s a thief!” Dori scolded her, and Riika wondered if he was too old for her to tickle anymore. “A no good thief!”

“That was one time.” Riika smiled at her son.

Dori’s face went red at her words and Riika let him stomp away to work out his anger. She had learned in his fifties to just let him stew for a while. He would work his anger out on his own and then he would apologize to her with a nice cup of tea. He had always been one for good manners, though Riika wasn’t sure where that had come from.

“Yer son terrifies me.” Nim whispered after Dori slammed the door. He gave Riika a wicked grin before he stole a kiss from her.

Riika just laughed as she pulled him to her. “He will kill you if he finds you in here.”

“I’ll risk it.” Nim whispered against her ear.

And what a risk he was.

Dori had been furious as she continued to court Nim, but she hadn’t smiled this much in years and found it hard to listen to his warnings. What would her son know of the world, he had taken after his father in that regard, always believing he knew what was best. She had to often times remind Dori who the parent was in their relationship, but those few times she did she would hear him mumble under his breath.

But she didn’t care because she felt loved.

“Love hurts.” Dori whispered into her hair as she sobbed against her son. Nim had been found in an alley not too far from their home, he had been cut down by someone in the shadows. “Love hurts.” Dori repeated as he held her close. “It is the most precious thing in the world but it hurts.”

She mourned Nim, she had no token of his to hang on her wall but as she rubbed her stomach she knew that she had something even better.

And then Nori was born.

Dori moved them down to the lowest level of the mountain, he claimed it was closer to his work but Riika knew her son was doing it for her sake. The court didn’t mingle in the lower halls so she would be able to avoid their whispers, instead she found joy in the miners that lived next door. They were a nice family with a young son who had shown promise in weaving.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Nori would scream as Dori chased him around the house, he was a wild child, loud and brash. Quick to anger and he never forgot a grudge, Riika would laugh as her sons would chase each other until Dori was red in the face, then she would pull Nori to her and tickle him breathless.

“Stahp!” Nori hissed and wiggled.

“You need to be kinder to your brother.” Riika smiled at her auburn son, “He only wishes to look out for you.”

“He’s not my da!” Nori slid out of her grasp before pulled her to him in a hug. “I only need you.”

“And you have me.” Riika held him close. “But I need Dori, you understand. So you have to put up with him if you want to keep me.”

Nori would just pout at her before stomping off to make trouble. Riika didn’t mind as long as he made it home for supper.

Riika had never taken too much notice to the dwarves that stared at her, maybe it was something she has become immune to in court but it happened never-the-less. The one thing that she didn’t prepare for, or know what to do with, was the suitors. What grown dwarf with two children would expect to find suitors at her door?

Even she wasn’t that vain.

She didn’t know what to make of prince Frerin. At first she thought about going through with it, thinking of the stir it would cause in the royal court but then she actually met the young prince. He was radiant and pure, genuine in everything he did and he was just too young. She did her best to turn him down gently, he seemed to have understood her reasoning and would only visit her after there was some disagreement with the royal house. Maybe he thought she was safe, since she wanted nothing from him but she learned to expect him if she heard word of Frerin getting into a fight with one of his kin.

She hadn’t expected Onak.

Their families had been friends for years, the miners next door who helped watched Nori...Onak was only slightly younger than their son. He had proven himself as a weaver and an artist, many of the guilds would praise him for his craftsmanship and he was a very gentle dwarf. It wasn’t a natural love like she had with Dunli, or a passionate one that she had gotten from Nim...it was a gentle love.

Something soft, a comfort in her old age. It was fresh, new, and constant. Riika knew that she was never going to meet her One, if she had ever had one to begin with but she she watched her sons grow her belief in love never faded.

Even when Dori came home, broken, after meeting his One.

Her previous Dori, the light of her world had been rejected. He seemed like a shell of himself threw her wedding to Onak and she was glad that her sons were leaving her. The Iron Hills would do them both some good and hopefully give Dori the space he needed to heal. Maybe give Nori the space to breath, so that he wouldn’t feel so suffocated by traditions.

“Ma.” Riika smiled at her eldest son, her husband and Nori fighting in the background. Dori took a breath before forcing a smile just for her.

“Are you ready to go?” She would be strong for him, he wouldn’t want her tears as he left the only life he ever knew. Dori just nodded before he pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m going to miss your nagging.”

“Ha!” Dori’s smile was real for a brief second before he grabbed her arm. “I can’t believe I’m leaving your care to a child...Onak will be good for you, he’s a good dwarf.”

“He is.” She smiled at him as he let her finger trail across his pale braids.

“Love hurts.” Dori whispered as he grabbed his wrist before giving her a pained expression. Riika bit her lip as she pulled further on his braids to encourage him. “You’ve been teaching me this my whole life but I never...Ma, this hurts.”

“I know, my darling.” Riika tried to soothe him.

“It is the most precious thing in the world, but it hurts.”

*

 

**Author's Note:**

> So this is something that I've been wanting to write for a while and I figured it was also something good to put out there so you guys know that I'm still working. I promise to get back to work on Soul Mates!! It just might be some time. 
> 
> Thank you for all your awesome reviews and I hope you don't mind this little side step!


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